My old mother used to tell me patience is a virtue, but no amount of clichés could soothe my impetuous soul.
In my experience, good things do not come to those who wait. All ‘those who
wait’ get for their virtuous behavior is a lifetime of sitting in lobbies
sipping bad coffee from small paper cups.
This all brings us to the latest target of my ire: the State of Michigan; You didn’t really think you were going to get a morality
tale about how I learned to be patient, did you?
Sure the state has angered me in the past with its oppressive legislation,
absurd laws and inability to competently balance a budget, but when they start
spending our money and years worth of man-hours fighting a private citizen, I
get peeved; I mean talking-about-myself-in-third-person-angry.
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Gohs is getting real sick and tired of the state officials trying to prevent Steve Libert, head of the expedition to find 17th century ship Le Griffon, from reaching his goal.
Let us pretend for a moment our fine state had a budget overflowing with
discretionary spending, even then they would have no business trying to
sabotage citizen salvors.
No mere mercenary treasure hunter, Libert spent his
own money for three decades searching for this vessel, and he has every intention
of seeing its artifacts to museums.
Instead of working with Libert to realize all the
cultural and financial good which would come from allowing his experts to
unearth what may very well be the famed ship, the state keeps him tied up in
court, works to sabotage his fundraising efforts and supersede federal law
through its own state courts.
Two weeks ago Gohs, who is still very angry, wrote an
update story on Le Griffon. Gohs made several phone
calls and sent several e-mails to the Michigan Attorney General’s office. Per
an AG’s office request, Gohs even sent a list of
questions via e-mail to their press secretary. Two weeks has gone by and still
no word from them.
Now, we understand that we are but a lowly community newspaper and perhaps do
not warrant the basic respect one affords a tuna sandwich, but even mother dear
knows when enough is enough.
Here is the press secretary’s e-mail address: hillsr@michigan.gov. Maybe he’ll tell you
how much of your money the state has spent fighting Libert in this atrocious economy and while you’re at it, ask them if they have nothing
better to do than stifle what could be the greatest archaeological find in
Great Lakes history.
When it comes to Gohs’ virtue wish list, he’ll take
justice over patience any day of the week.